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Show Seme 77 CLASSFIEDS FEATURES PAUL HARVEV WEEK'S TV GUDE THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 1977 Keen Basketball Competition: An Aggie Tradition 7 7 l team on any given night can defeat any given five men of another team. Stanford will play in The Spectrum on Saturday night, Jan. 29, and UC Santa Barbara will make it four straight home games in The BY GARY RAW LINGS If you're tired of the winter dulldrums and want to see some excitement and action, why not take in some collegiate basketball? And in the Scene '77 area, The Spectrum in Logan is the place to find some of the finest basketball competition around. If you remember the days of yore when you couldn't find seating after driving 30 or 40 miles for a game, you needn't worry any longer. The Aggie basketball of today features play in the spacious and modern 10,000-seSpectrum. Aggie basketball fans travel for miles, park in the lower football stadium parking lot, catch a shuttle bus which drops them off at the door and wander into the d basketball palace with the ease of a king lor the 7:30 p.m. home game action. - No longer do you have to worry about seeing through the rafters while you tire quickly from a hard bleacher seat. Now you sit in individualized armchair seats and . every seat in, the house is a good one. If you're an Aggie fan of old who believes that no team will ever compare to the 1959-6- 0 Cec Baker cagers who went 24-or from the 1938-3- 9 era when E. Lowell Romney's squad went 17-there's still room for an avid Aggie fan to cheer on Coach Dutch Belnap's 1976-7- 7 team that has carved out an record going into the Weber State game Tuesday night in Ogden. Yes, in fact you can lay aside for a night your memories of Aggie grandeur past and take in tonight's Spectrum game with the Denver Pioneers and watch Aggie cage history in the making. Or if you can't make tonight's action, plan to attend next Tuesday night's e contest with Stanislaus. While Stanislaus isn't a UCLA or an Indiana, it is one of the top teams from the Far Western Conference and anybody knows that in basketball any five men on one Spectrum when they are hosted by the Aggies on Saturday night, Feb. 5. The Spectrum won't bring Field-hous- w m w k m 1 MIKE SANTOS is one of the better "big men" to play for the Aggies In many years. He Is consistently a top rebounder. mm m mm- &i :isks;: v:r-- t 6,000 voices that filled it for the basketball tremendous games played in the late 50s and 60s. When Cec Baker's Hal Theus used to battle Coach Jack Gardner's University of Utah Redskins and Billy (The Hill) McGill those battles were classics and students waited in line for hours in temperatures just to get inside the door. Lauriski, Jim Boatwright and Rich Haws. When you step in the Field-hous- e you also hear the shouts and remember the long standing ovation when Aggie great Wayne Estes, an if there ever was one, under Coach LaDell Andersen, hit his 2,000th center Mike Santos Oscar Williams are already cutting into the records in rebounds and assists this season. The young Ags battled UCLA down a tightrope before los Aggie and guard sub-freezi- them from a much won-los- s better-soundin- g record this season but then again, record in who can knock a The Spectrum? The team has only three seniors which has hurt in experience but the ranks 2 from juniors on through freshmen are filled with quality players who will improve with playing time. Aggie attendance mushroomed of 8,000 per has to an average game in the new facility while yesteryear's crowds used to average 5,000. Likewise the quality of play has improved in the collegiate ranks and the two compliment each other. This Aggie tradition will continue in the high Rockies and, who knows, maybe that first Aggie team to go on to n prominence is just around the corner. post-seaso- , remember the long sustain- ft) ed and hushed silence just a week later when a memorial tribute was given Estes after his tragic death after reaching that scoring pinacle. In The Spectrum, basketball history is in its infancy. The Aggie teams have only lost 18 games out of 93 played in the new facility since it was opened for play in the dH I 70s. If you remember the class- early ic basketball battle royales of Aggie days gone by, you'll see classics in the making in m The Spectrum. This includes the Jan. 11 game this year rival Idaho with inter-stat- e State. Although the Aggies loss in took a bitter that one, Utah State fans will be waiting for the next time around when they're sure the score will be reversed. Aggie teams have battled two-poi- m ) L AH a. 1 ass j "VWcvj PRESTON BAILESS, the Aggies' 9 sophomore forward from Corpus Christl. Texas, goes up for a jumper. This Aggie youngster shows promise of great things to come. 6-- last Dec. 29 and did the same with defending NCAA champion Indiana. Just a few points separate ing career point. You'll also O errata e, The Fieldhouse literally still echos with the Cal-Stat- X post-seaso- but, then again, we're in a new era and a new day. 7 I it , that flood of memories you receive when you enter the old George Nelson well-lighte- DUTCH BELNAP, Utah State's coach, shows some of the intensity a major college coach must display. The pressure of coaching major college basketball gets more intense each season. their way into many postseason tournaments and at the start of each season have their eyes rivoted on tournament action. Coach Belnap's team this season, although admittedly up and down, hopes to rely on its strengths to carry it through the second half of the schedule for perhaps another crack at n play. The Aggie list of basketball greats will continue to grow over the years and new names possible some from within the shadows of The Spectrum will be added to the likes of Theus, Troy Collier, Max Perry, Cornell Green, Estes, Shaler Hali-moMarv Roberts, Jimmy Moore, Nate Williams, Bob m BLAIR MARTINEAU takes a glance upward at the Spectrum crowd while Coach Belnap gives timeout advice. |